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Overview of Fiction Subgenres

The document discusses different sub-genres of fiction including short stories, novels, myths, legends, and fables. It provides definitions and key characteristics of each sub-genre, such as short stories focusing on one plot and theme and novels being longer fictional narratives. Myths are symbolic stories involving gods and legends have historical bases while fables use animals and objects to teach moral lessons.

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Mirah Meizhae
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35 views2 pages

Overview of Fiction Subgenres

The document discusses different sub-genres of fiction including short stories, novels, myths, legends, and fables. It provides definitions and key characteristics of each sub-genre, such as short stories focusing on one plot and theme and novels being longer fictional narratives. Myths are symbolic stories involving gods and legends have historical bases while fables use animals and objects to teach moral lessons.

Uploaded by

Mirah Meizhae
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Sub-genres of fictions

1. Short Story. Shorter in length than a novel, a short story is a fictional prose

work which usually focuses on one plot, one main character (with a few

additional minor characters), and one central theme. It aims at unity of effect

and creation of mood rather than on plot. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Philosophy

of Composition” describes a short story as one that “should be read in one

sitting, anywhere from a half hour to two hours. In contemporary fiction, a

short story can range from 1,000 to 20,000 words.”

2. Novel. A novel is a narrative prose work of considerable length that talks

about significant human experience. The novel’s beginnings date back to as

early as the writing of “Tale of Genji” by Murasaki Shikibu; later, in the early

seventeenth century, European novels came to be written (Prahl, 2019).

A novel is also characterized by the following: (1) written in prose form, (2)

considerable length or word count, (3) fictional content, and (4) individualism;

that is, it appeals to an individual audience as a reader rather than to a group.

3. Myth. Derived from the Greek mythos, which has a range of meanings from

“word,” through “saying” and “story,” to “fiction,” a myth is a symbolic narrative

of unknown origin and tells events which are partly traditional and associated

with religious beliefs. Myths are specific accounts with gods or superhuman

beings as characters involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a

time that is unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from

ordinary human experience. Mythology, on the other hand, refers to both the

study of myth and the body of myths belonging to a particular religious

tradition.
4. Legend. A legend is traditional tale which is thought to have historical bases.

5. Fable. A fable is an instructive story about human social behaviour with

personified animals or natural objects as characters and always ends with an

explicit moral message. The concept of time and space is also not specific in

a fable.

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